Tom Engelhardt

Originally published on TomDispatch: In recent weeks, political soothsayers have speculated about a wide variety of odious new policies the incoming Trump administration and its allies in Congress may or may not pursue. No one can predict with certainty which of those measures they will inflict on us and which they’ll forget about.  But we … Continue reading “When Israeli Warplanes Rain Death on Gaza, the Co-Pilot Is Uncle Sam”

Originally published at TomDispatch. Almost 80 years later, it’s sadly all too easy to forget that two nuclear weapons were once used with devastating effect on this planet. Here’s just a small description by one survivor of the atomic destruction of the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, that can be found in … Continue reading “Angling Toward Armageddon: The Return of Senator Strangelove”

Gaza, Haiti, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Russia, Syria, Ukraine, and Venezuela: President-elect Donald Trump will face no shortage of foreign-policy challenges when he assumes office in January. None, however, comes close to China in scope, scale, or complexity. No other country has the capacity to resist his predictable antagonism with the same degree of strength and … Continue reading “Can Trump Trump China (or Vice Versa)?”

Originally appeared on TomDispatch. It hardly matters what day you check out which news report when it comes to Gaza or now Lebanon. Amid the accounts of chaos and further destruction, there are always the children, even if often hidden away in the odd paragraph somewhere in the piece. Take a typical New York Times … Continue reading “The Global War on Children”

The divestment campaigns launched last spring by students protesting Israel’s mass slaughter in Gaza brought the issue of the militarization of American higher education back into the spotlight. Of course, financial ties between the Pentagon and American universities are nothing new. As Stuart Leslie has pointed out in his seminal book on the topic, The … Continue reading “The Pentagon Goes to School”

Originally appeared at TomDispatch. We normally think of wartime and peacetime as two distinct and separate realities. When wars end, they end. Period. Unfortunately, when it comes to modern wars, that’s been anything but the case, as TomDispatch regular Andrea Mazzarino makes clear in a striking fashion today. She focuses on the devastating weaponry left … Continue reading “War Doesn’t End When It ‘Ends’”

Originally appeared at TomDispatch. The next president of the United States, whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump, will face many contentious domestic issues that have long divided this country, including abortion rights, immigration, racial discord, and economic inequality. In the foreign policy realm, she or he will face vexing decisions over Ukraine, Israel/Gaza, and China/Taiwan. … Continue reading “Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, and the Armageddon Agenda”

The Pentagon is in the midst of a massive $2 trillion multiyear plan to build a new generation of nuclear-armed missiles, bombers, and submarines. A large chunk of that funding will go to major nuclear weapons contractors like Bechtel, General Dynamics, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman. And they will do everything in their power to keep … Continue reading “Cashing in on Nukes”

Here’s a strange thing to even begin to grasp. In all these years, at least in Washington, the heartland of American power, it hasn’t been understood, not even faintly. In — yes! — all these years, including significant parts of the last century and this one, this country has continually poured ever more money into … Continue reading “Osama Bin Laden’s Enduring Triumph”

Reprinted from TomDispatch. From Gaza to the West Bank to the Israeli-Lebanese borderlands, it’s been a genuine nightmare. The devastation in Gaza remains surreal and almost impossible to take in. Housing, hospitals, schools, religious institutions, you name it – they’re all now a “maze of rubble” while the fighting just goes on (and on and … Continue reading “Assessing the Flames of Protest”